Pressemitteilungen 1993

20. Dezember 1993: The ESO Council [1] took a number of important decisions in its December 1993 meeting. In particular, it unanimously agreed to proceed with the modified plan for the construction of the ESO Very Large Telescope at the Paranal mountain in Chile.

29. Juni 1993: On June 25, 1993, Schott Glaswerke (Mainz, Germany) officially handed over to ESO the largest mirror blank ever made. Weighing 22,000 kilograms and with a diameter of 8.2 metres, the blank has a thickness of only 177 millimetres.

24. Juni 1993: The delegations of the Government of Chile and of the International Organisation ESO [1] report on the outcome of their discussions regarding the installation of the largest telescope in the world "The Very Large Telescope" and "Very Large Telescope Interferometer" (VLT /VLTI) at Cerro Paranal (in the Chilean region II — Antofagasta) and the clarification of the future relations between ESO and Chile. The object of these discussions was a closer cooperation between ESO and Chile to the mutual benefit of this country and the eight European member countries of ESO.

22. Juni 1993: ESO's Contribution to the European Week for Scientific Culture The European Southern Observatory is pleased to announce the launch of its new programme "Future Astronomers of Europe". It is organised in conjunction with the European Week for Scientific Culture (November 22 -27, 1993), with support from the Commission of the European Communities.

3. Juni 1993: The recent identification of the optical image of a pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud is a fine illustration of astronomy as a high-tech international science. It is the first extragalactic pulsar to be so identified and only the third radio pulsar, after those in the Crab and Vela nebulae in the Milky Way, for which this has been possible.

3. Juni 1993: Although astronomy is an exact natural science, chance sometimes plays an important role. The recent discovery during an otherwise routine observation of the hitherto brightest known double quasar [1] would not have been possible without some luck.

1. Juni 1993: On March 28, 1993, American astronomers David Jewitt and Jane Luu on Hawaii discovered a slow-moving minor planet of magnitude 23. More observations were made the following night, confirming the unusual motion and indicating that it is located at a very large distance from the Sun, possibly far beyond Pluto, the outermost known, major planet. It was given the preliminary designation 1993 FW (IAU Circular 5730)

14. Mai 1993: ESO, the European Southern Observatory, in reply to questions raised by the media would like to clarify its position with regard to recent events which concern the relations between ESO and the Republic of Chile, the host state for the ESO observatories in the southern hemisphere.

27. März 1993: The past decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in our knowledge of the Universe we live in. New instruments for astronomical observations and analysis are unveiling the secrets of deep space at an ever-increasing pace. Detailed studies of planets, stars, nebulae, galaxies and strange, exotic celestial objects have provided us with new insights into the formation, structure and evolution of our Universe.

29. Januar 1993: This photo is a composite of five exposures of Minor Planet no.~4179, also known as Toutatis, obtained with the 3.5-m ESO New Technology Telescope on December 21, 1992, by ESO-astronomer Jesper Storm. At this time, Toutatis was about 13 million km from the Earth, i.e. 33 times more distant than the Moon. On December 8, this Minor Planet passed within 3.6 million km from the Earth, but at that time it was not possible to observe it with ground-based optical telescopes, because it was situated between the Earth and the Sun. However, very good radar images were obtained which showed thecratered surface of the object.